Pi Girl

Because I need a witness, the following are excerpts of my conversation with Jason this afternoon while lunching at Wegmans:

Jason: I think we should have a sword-fighting contest in Wisner Park next year the day after Christmas using only cardboard tubes from gift wrap.

Me: Um … ok. You know you’ll need a permit for that, right? Do you know what the rules for this tournament would be?

Jason: Oh, it won’t be a tournament. It’ll be a melee.

Me: So, there won’t be a winner?

Jason: Oh, there will be a winner.

Me: How will you know who the winner is in a melee? Are you going to have referees to police this melee?

Jason: We don’t need referees. It’ll be self-policing. We’ll just explain the rules beforehand.

Me: Somehow, I don’t think the city will approve a permit application for a melee in the park with no organization and no referees that allows just anyone to join in.

Jason: Why, you don’t think they’ll follow the rules?

Me: In downtown Elmira? Um…..no.

Later ….

Random creepy old guy to Jason: How do lions make love?

While I try to pretend creepy old is not talking to us and get far, far away,

Jason: I don’t know, my friends are all Kiwanis.

Apparently, Jason did know him and told him that joke earlier. It’s just not what one expects to hear from random strangers in Wegmans.

I hope the holidays found you well. Here’s how Christmas went for Cassidy-Whong household.

It started with the Christmas pageant for St. Matthew’s. It was a lot of work, for the adults and the kids, but it turned out fantastic. The kids really got into the songs (well, the ones they liked the best anyway) and I think it got the church pumped up. Our newly ordained priest had to spend Christmas in the hospital (he’s fine now and getting some much-needed rest) so he couldn’t perform the services, and I know that put a damper on everyone’s spirits. But, really, who can stay sad for long when you have a dancing Christmas tree? Even better, that kid was only going to wear it once for the Tannenbaum number. But then, his brother got all antsy later so his mom put the costume on him and then he danced around too for a completely unrelated song.

Basically, it went how a pageant is supposed to go. The older kids did their thing, they rocked and the little kids who weren’t even around for rehearsals stole the show simply by standing there and looking cute - or dancing around in Christmas tree costumes. And, yes, there’s a photo gallery.

Christmas morning, I woke up mad early (4 AM) to stand in the freezing cold for an hour. Oh, and also deliver presents for the Arctic League. I pretended to be a Dunne and joined Michelle, Eileen, Helen, Nicole and Emily in their car - notice no men joined us on this trip …. hmmmm. Actually, Jason was there too, but he was there as the media so he was taking photos. Check out his photo gallery and the accompanying story.

We got 2 bags and delivered them no problem. Then, as we headed to breakfast we got word that there were more bags to be delivered. The League often rations out the bags because otherwise, they’ll run out of bags of presents for volunteers to deliver. There were so many bags this year, they needed more volunteers. We got the first bag delivered but the 2nd bag had a bad address on it and the phone number went to an answering service so we couldn’t get a hold of the family. So, we returned the bag; this happens so the League is prepared and will hopefully find the family to give them their presents.

After that, the bags were all delivered so he headed to breakfast. The American Legion provides free breakfast to Arctic League volunteers to thank them. It’s a nice way to start Christmas morning.

After that, my day was uneventful. I napped for the rest of the morning, Jason worked until 1, we did presents, got the cat hopped up on catnip and ate yummy Christmas food. It was all good.

Merry Christmas Eve to all my readers! May Santa bring you everything you wish for. And I wish to be serenaded by men singing a cappella (mmmmm…….). Enjoy!

VS,

You left a comment on my blog which I am not going to publish. I understand you had something you needed to say and I’m glad things are going much better now. However, I try to maintain a perceived squeaky clean image in Internet-land simply because my name is all over this thing and so is the company I work for. If you’d like to submit the comment again, I ask that you edit some of it down and I’ll be happy to approve. If not, that’s your call. Good luck to you; I really do wish you all the best.

Peace,
Erin

Ok, so our quartet photos are in from contest. (Click to enlarge.)

And I made this handy-dandy poll so you can vote and tell me which one you like better. And I would never try to persuade your vote by saying I like me in the red photo better but I think the pink photo makes a better quartet photo. No no, I would never do that; I want to hear from you (anonymously on the poll and/or in the comments).

Sorry I’ve been out of touch. Between work and shoveling snow and insulating the attic, it’s been hard to get near the computer.

Especially because I wanted to blog about this cool Christmas video and the Mamma Mia! trailer which is now online and they totally make my day. Instead, you get a Christmas meme.

Wrapping paper or gift bags? Oh, gift bags are most definitely the best things every invented.

Real or artificial tree? I prefer real, but I’ve never had to care for a real one before. That was always Dad’s job and after he left, we switched the much easier artificial one. So when I got my own apartment, I opted for convenience.

When do you put up the tree? Whenever. I always wait until Advent starts and then we see how busy I am from there.

When do you take it down? Again, with whenever. I once left it up 4 months and it drove Jason up a wall (and we weren’t even living together then). So, I let him decide.

Do you like eggnog? Yes! It’s my favorite Christmas treat!

Favorite gift received as a child? Hmmm…not sure. I liked the snow tube I got one year, it was fun to take naps on. Funny, I don’t actually remember most of what I got, but I do remember the absolute thrill of going into the living room at 4 am to see if Santa had come yet.

Do you have a nativity scene? No, but I wish I did. I had a really cute one but my cat walked off with most of the figures leaving me with Joseph, a shepherd and a camel.

Hardest person to buy for? Jason

Easiest person to buy for? Janice, but mostly because she has that handy-dandy Amazon wish list that she keeps up-to-date. Otherwise, I’d say Mumsy.

Worst Christmas present you ever got? I’m going to go with the 20 lottery tickets we got from Santa one year when Jimmy won, like $60, and I won not one cent. I think he made up for it the next year but it seems like every year, one of us wins the bulk of the money and the other not so much. But that year was brutal.

Mail or email Christmas cards? I like both but it does seem like there’s more love in the mailed cards, probably because it takes more effort.

Favorite Christmas movie? It’s a Wonderful Life!

When do you start shopping for Christmas? September-ish. Mostly, I try not to be a frantic shopper come December, but I can’t always help it.

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.

Favorite thing to eat on Christmas? Rye boat.

Clear lights or colored on the tree? Clear or all one color.

Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night or Carol of the Bells or Silent Night when it was done by candlelight on Christmas Eve and the choir had that really cool descant that we got to sing when i was little.

Travel at Christmas or stay home? This year, we’re home since Jason has to work. But we’ll travel to both B’ville and Maryland in the next month.

Can you name all of Santa’s Reindeer? Oh yes, I have to sing them every year.

Angel or star on top of tree? I like angels more, although my poor excuse for a tree has neither.

Open presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning although I’m not sure this year with Jason working and me doing Arctic League.

Most annoying thing this time of year? The stores and the panic-filled aura that spreads from shopper to shopper.

Do you decorate your tree in any theme or color? Um, no. I’m not that talented.

What do you leave for Santa? When I was little, it depended on whether Mom thought Santa was dieting that year. Nowadays, Jason seems to think Santa doesn’t need anything (we’ll change that if/when little Whongs arrive).

It’s kind of weird to have all this snow on the ground. Yeah, sure, all my Christmas memories are of lots of snow, but it seems lately, we’ve enjoyed warmer Decembers with little snow. I’m pretty sure this is the first time since I’ve moved to the Elmira area that I’ve seen so much snow before Christmas.

Anyway, I finally got my hands on a videotape of the Arctic League Telethon (thank you, Diana!) so I can sure all the Crystal Chord-y goodness with you.

Crystal Chords sing “Jingle Bells” and “Deck the Halls.”

Then we sing “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “White Christmas.”

The telethon producers decided to hold a surprise tribute to Joe Cavallaro, who heads up Joe Cavallaro’s Dixieland Jazz Band and has been performing on the telethon for 25 years. So, Affinity sang him our own special version of “Joey Angel.” I apologize now for the bad sound. We were not miked well and you can hear all kinds of background noise, including the drummer giving us some rhythm. I also apologize for my bad hair. Oh, and the announcer came up with the cheesy banter all on his own; he made me say that.

I got a wonderful email from Nancy, who decided to elf Affinity.

I could play that all day and it will still make me laugh.

I absolutely love Chemung County’s tradition of the Arctic League. I used it last year for my 30 ways to make a difference and it was so much fun. So, this year I’m planning on doing it again. I will be delivering presents Christmas morning bright and early.

But before we can deliver presents, we have to pack the bags that will go out. So, Jason and I volunteered to join the Star-Gazette team and pack bags. Last year, my job was to tie the bags and attach the tag. This year, I wanted to try something different so we got in the line of packers and we were assigned the Boys 9-10. Which meant whenever a boy 9 or 10 was called, we had to pack the totes with a GI Joe game, a basketball, a metal thingy puzzle, a hat and gloves.

We were in a new building this year. The old Arctic League building was knocked down to make room for a Walgreen’s so the Board found a bigger and better buiding, with parking even! It was really cool, especially because we were the first group to pack bags in the new building. So, all the media came out.

Here’s the Star-Gazette story and Photo Gallery. Jason and I are in the photos. Look for the basketballs, and we’re right in front of them.

Also, here is the report from WENY, you can see us in the video. News 10 Now was there too but they don’t have the video on their site. We’re probably on that video too because Jason is friends with the reporter and she brought the camera right over to our station; but if you get the channel and happen to catch the story, look for us.

**UPDATE**News 10 Now has the video up now. That’s Jason’s hand, showing off the GI Joe game.

That’s my Grinch name according to this site. Which seems appropriate considering the rant I’m about to go into.

I just have to say this: I hate Jason’s car. A lot. With a passion. We are sooooo not friends and we never have been. I loved the old Hyundai Accent that Jason drove before he crashed it 4 houses away from my mom’s place driving us back to Ithaca for his graduation. Oh, I miss the Purple Love Machine (he named it, not me). The money he got from the insurance company went into the car he’s had ever since 1997: the Toyota Tercel. Which I don’t think they even make anymore.

Anyway, Jason’s been through thick and thin with this car and I think he has some love for it, but the car and I have never gotten along and I think we both wish the other was out of the picture. So yesterday, Jason needed my car for 4-wheel driving purposes, which left me with his evil car. And it tried to kill me.

Jason says I’m the one who broke it, but I think it just saw me and went into self-destruct mode. For one thing, I couldn’t get the seatbelt to click. Then, there was no gas. So, after feeding it, I tried to start the car and it was not happy.

The battery light came on, then turned off but I started to notice that everytime I took my foot off the gas, all dashboard lights would dim until they were nonexistent. Then, the rear defroster never did defrost the back window AND there was NO HEAT in the car. I was absolutely convinced I was going to die right there on Rt 17.

Fortunately, since I was on my way to the mall, I decided to make Sears my first stop while I did my dinner and shopping with Desra. They put in a new battery but they still couldn’t fix the heat or the seatbelt.

When I got it home, Jason was quite upset about having to fix more crap on his car when we’ve got home improvement projects to worry about. He even tried to suggest that I’m the one who broke his car. But I swear, I did nothing to break it. Even if I often not-so-secretly wish death upon it.

Anyway, the car is now at the Toyota place. I’m trying to get Jason to look around the dealership to see if maybe he might consider getting a more agreeable car. Although something tells me we’ll never be rid of his evil car.